I want to be better because of her

"When she looks at you, you know you've been seen. When she listens, you know you’ve been heard."

If someone said this about me, I’d die a very happy woman. How many of us can look in the mirror and truly say that we honor the many people who come our way each day? With our full attention. With our unwavering presence.

Those statements were made by Oprah Winfrey about Michelle Obama after their meeting at the Whitehouse. And any one of us who has seen Michelle in person or watched her from afar, realizes that regardless of political affiliation one of the biggest gifts to come out of Obama's presidency is his wife.

Michelle raises us up. She’s smart and beautiful and using her role to change the world--that authentic heroine I and many women have been looking for our entire lives.

Watch as she speaks (and gets choked up) at a school for disadvantaged girls in England. I can only imagine the lifelong impact her words and emotions made on these young ladies. I know the impact they had on me.